When you've had a career like Nicole Kidman's, success comes in waves. She was down for a few years, but she is definitely on the upswing again now. Following on her Oscar-nominated performance in Lion, she began earning rave reviews for her jaw-dropping portrayal of an abused wife in HBO's Big Little Lies. And ignoring the misstep Queen of the Desert, she's got three major movies and one TV series taking the spotlight at Cannes. There's Jane Campion's Top of the Lake: China Girl, Yorgos Lanthimos' The Killing of a Sacred Deer, and John Cameron Mitchell's How to Talk to Girls at Parties. But the one that has the most heat behind it is Sofia Coppola's remake of The Beguiled, which has just debuted a new trailer.
Kidman looks like she'll be a major force in the film, which takes place at a Southern all-girls' boarding school during the Civil War. Colin Farrell plays an injured Union soldier whose presence there stirs up all kinds of sexual tension and desire among the many sheltered women there. Elle Fanning, Kirsten Dunst, Angourie Rice, Oona Laurence, and Emma Howard co-star.
The Beguiled opens June 23rd, and I expect some Oscar nominations may come out of this one, perhaps for Kidman herself.
